A World More Concrete HISTORICAL STUDIES OF URBAN AMERICA Edited by Timothy J. Gilfoyle, James R. Grossman, and Becky M. Nicolaides Also in the series: URBAN APPETITES: FOOD AND CULTURE SEGREGATION: A GLOBAL HISTORY OF DIVIDED IN NINETEENTH-C ENTURY NEW YORK CITIES by Carl H. Nightingale by Cindy R. Lobel SUNDAYS AT SINAI: A JEWISH CONGREGATION CRUCIBLES OF BLACK EMPOWERMENT: IN CHICAGO by Tobias Brinkmann CHICAGO’S NEIGHBORHOOD POLITICS FROM THE NEW DEAL TO HAROLD WASHINGTON IN THE WATCHES OF THE NIGHT: LIFE IN by Jeffrey Helgeson THE NOCTURNAL CITY, 1820–1930 by Peter C. Baldwin THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO: POLICING AND THE CREATION OF A COSMOPOLITAN MISS CUTLER AND THE CASE OF THE LIBERAL POLITICS, 1950–1971 by Christopher RESURRECTED HORSE: SOCIAL WORK AND THE Lowen Agee STORY OF POVERTY IN AMERICA, AUSTRALIA, AND BRITAIN by Mark Peel HARLEM: THE UNMAKING OF A GHETTO by Camilo José Vergara THE TRANSATLANTIC COLLAPSE OF URBAN RENEWAL: POSTWAR URBANISM FROM NEW PLANNING THE HOME FRONT: BUILDING YORK TO BERLIN by Christopher Klemek BOMBERS AND COMMUNITIES AT WILLOW RUN by Sarah Jo Peterson I’VE GOT TO MAKE MY LIVIN’: BLACK WOMEN’S SEX WORK IN TURN-O F-T HE-C ENTURY CHICAGO PURGING THE POOREST: PUBLIC HOUSING by Cynthia M. Blair AND THE DESIGN POLITICS OF TWICE-C LEARED COMMUNITIES by Lawrence J. Vale PUERTO RICAN CITIZEN: HISTORY AND POLITICAL IDENTITY IN TWENTIETH-C ENTURY BROWN IN THE WINDY CITY: MEXICANS AND NEW YORK CITY by Lorrin Thomas PUERTO RICANS IN POSTWAR CHICAGO by Lilia Fernandez STAYING ITALIAN: URBAN CHANGE AND ETHNIC LIFE IN POSTWAR TORONTO AND PHILADELPHIA BUILDING A MARKET: THE RISE OF THE HOME by Jordan S tanger- Ross IMPROVEMENT INDUSTRY, 1914–1960 by Richard Harris Additional series titles follow index A World More Concrete Real Estate and the Remaking of Jim Crow South Florida N. D. B. Connolly The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London N. D. B. Connolly is assistant professor of history at Johns Hopkins University. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2014 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 2014. Printed in the United States of America 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 1 2 3 4 5 ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 11514- 6 (cloth) ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 13525-0 (e- book) DOI: 10.7208/chicago/ 9780226135250.001.0001 OUP Material: p. 149 extract (531w) from “Games of Chance: Jim Crow’s Entrepreneurs Bet on ‘Negro’ Law and Order,” from What’s Good for Business, edited by Kim Phillips- Fein and Julian E. Zelizer (2012). Free permission. Author’s own material. By permission of Oxford University Press, USA. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Connolly, N. D. B., author. A world more concrete : real estate and the remaking of Jim Crow South Florida / N.D.B. Connolly. pages ; cm. — (Historical studies of urban America) ISBN 978- 0- 226- 11514- 6 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978- 0- 226- 13525- 0 (e- book) 1. Real property—History—Political aspects—Florida—Miami. 2. Rental housing—History—Political aspects—Florida. 3. African Americans—Housing—Florida—Miami—History. 4. African American neighborhoods—Florida—Miami—History. 5. Urban renewal—Florida— Miami—History—20th century. 6. Racism—Florida—Miami—History. I. Title. II. Series: Historical studies of urban America. HD268.M45C66 2014 363.5'99960730759381—dc23 2013040478 o This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992 (Permanence of Paper). For Shani, naturally And for my mother, Diane Connolly- Graham CONTENTS Acknowledgments / ix Introduction / America’s Playground / 1 PART I: FOUNDATION ONE / The Magic City / 19 TWO / Bargaining and Hoping / 45 PART II: CONSTRUCTION THREE / Jim Crow Liberalism / 73 FOUR / Pan- America / 101 FIVE / Knocking on the Door / 133 SIX / A Little Insurance / 163 PART III: RENOVATION SEVEN / Bulldozing Jim Crow / 201 EIGHT / Suburban Renewal / 239 CONCLUSION / The Tragic City / 277 List of Abbreviations / 291 Notes / 293 Index / 363 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you, Jesus! I’ve accumulated a dizzying number of personal and professional debts over the life of this project. Only through the generosity of many wonderful people does this book exist at all. My most heartfelt gratitude, fi rst, to Ashraf H. A. Rushdy, who read far more (far more closely) than he had to, and who continues to inspire me with his discipline, insight, friendship, and genuine sense of perspective. Thank you for your mind. And thank you for helping me appreciate the relative value of ideas and relationships. I’d also like to thank Thomas C. Holt, Nell Irvin Painter, Barbara Jean Fields, and the late Michel- Rolph Trouillot. I’ve never actually met any of you. Nevertheless, your intellectual courage and the naked brilliance of your work kept me both heartened and humbled as I wrestled with institutional power and our country’s troublesome racial past. My sincere thanks to Robert Devens and Tim Mennel, from the Univer- sity of Chicago Press, as well as to Becky Nicolaides, who fi rst solicited this project. Thanks, too, to Jim Grossman, whose professionalism and insight made this a better book, and whose passing words of encouragement, some fi fteen years ago, kept me on the path to being a historian. I owe a tremen- dous debt of gratitude to my friend, collaborator, and manuscript reader, David Freund. Most fi rst-t ime authors never enjoy as much thorough, thoughtful, and encouraging feedback as that which David provided—un- less, of course, they, too, had David read their work. As a member of the Department of History and the Center for Africana Studies (CAS) at Johns Hopkins University, I’ve had the benefi t of growing among an exceptional collection of warm and unfailingly sharp scholars. In Africana Studies, I wish to thank Michael Hanchard, Hollis Robbins, Pier